KCBS-KCAL has expanded its local news programming, adding morning newscasts on Saturdays and Sundays.

Anchored by Kaj Goldberg and Serene Branson, the new shows will run from 7 to 8 a.m. on KCBS and 8 to 10 on KCAL, on Saturdays, and 6 to 7 a.m. on KCBS and 7 to 9 a.m. on KCAL, on Sundays.

Branson joined KCBS-KCAL in 2007 as a reporter, and Goldberg has been a weather anchor and reporter for the CBS duopoly since 2006.

Promoting the new newscasts on his Facebook page over the weekend, Goldberg wrote, “Tell all of your friends that they can count on us weekend mornings from now on.”

KCBS-KCAL reporter Serene Branson remained poised as a flamboyantly dressed man heckled her as she prepared to do a live shot during this week’s raid of Occupy LA. [Via dlisted]

In Los Angeles, KTLA and KCAL aired live coverage of a high speed police chase Thursday afternoon involving a man that may be involved in a string of recent bank robberies.

KTLA covered the chase during its 1 p.m. newscast and KCAL cut into its regularly scheduled programming at 1:45 with a special report, airing live chopper video.  The chase ended around 2:00 when the driver stopped his car at an intersection and surrendered to police. Read more

“I’ve been great,” KCBS reporter Serene Branson told Chris Wragge on the “Early Show” this morning, speaking about her first full week back at work following her slurred stand-up from the Grammys. Branson was back covering another big event on Sunday, reporting from the Oscars.

Branson described her experience reporting from the red carpet as “a little surreal” because she was approached by a handful of people that recognized her from the infamous Grammys report.

Covering the Vanity Fair after-party, Branson had to briefly walk down the red carpet. Paparazzi immediately began calling her name and snapping her photo. “It was a little uncomfortable to be on that side” of the velvet rope, she said.

“I knew something wasn’t right as soon as I opened my mouth,” KCBS’s Serene Branson told Erica Hill on the “Early Show” this morning. “I had a headache, my vision was very blurry. I knew something wasn’t right but I just thought I was tired.”

Branson said that she broke down after her now-infamous live appearance. The right side of her face went numb as she was swarmed by her KCBS crew. She began crying, partly out of fear and partly out of embarrassment, as paramedics rushed to the scene.

After checking her vital signs, paramedics asked Branson if she wanted to go to the hospital and she said that she just wanted to go home. The following day Branson underwent tests and doctors found that she had not suffered stroke, as many had speculated, but in fact experienced a severe migraine.

Serene Branson returned to TV on Thursday night, appearing on KCBS‘s 11 p.m. newscast in a special interview with anchor Pat Harvey.

“My head was definitely pounding and I was very uncomfortable and I knew something wasn’t right,” Branson told Harvey about her troubling appearance during the CBS-affiliate’s Grammys coverage last Sunday. “I was terrified and confused… What had just happened?”

What had happened was, according to Branson’s doctor, a severe migraine. Although the symptoms mimic those of a stroke, Branson did not suffer from a stroke or seizure, as many have speculated.

Branson is eager to get back to work and is looking forward to covering the upcoming Oscars ceremony.

“I’m ready to be telling the story and not be the story,” Branson told Harvey. Video inside… Read more

“That’s one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever witnessed,” said KCBS anchor Paul Magers about Serene Branson‘s erratic live report from the Grammys.

“Oh my God, I tell you, I was disturbed,” Magers told the Minneapolis Star Tribune this week. “God, it looked like a stroke.”

At the start of KCBS‘s late news on Sunday, Magers threw to Branson, who was stationed outside the Staples Center, and immediately he knew something was terribly wrong.

“As we were going into our package, I said to our producer, ‘Phone 911. There’s physically something wrong with her,’” he told the Star Tribune. Paramedics arrived on the scene shortly thereafter and examined Branson’s vital signs. According to Magers, Branson wanted to go home that night instead of visiting the hospital.  She saw her doctor on Monday and underwent tests.

Serene Branson‘s erratic Grammys report has achieved a unique level of internet notoriety: it is now being used to lure Facebook users into a malware booby trap.

“The latest scamware sweeping across Facebook cruelly touts video footage of Serene Branson,” writes TVSpy sister site AllFacebook, “but only links to a marketing survey exposing you to malware while making a commission for the schemer.”

So Facebook users beware: don’t click on any links titled “Reporter had a stroke on live TV” or open the dubious Fb application called “Reporter Stroke.”

If you’ve already clicked on such a link, AllFacebook suggests deleting it from your wall immediately and then removing the app itself from your account. A step-by-step tutorial on how to protect yourself from this scam, as well as other similar scams, can be found here.

Replaying the troubling video of KCBS reporter Serene Branson that made the internet rounds on Monday, NBC’s “Today”  speculated this morning about what could have caused Branson’s slurred speech and erratic disposition.

NBC reporter Kristen Welker spoke with the head of the department of neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai medical center who described Branson’s episode at the Grammys as a “classic neurological event.” His diagnosis was that it was either a “temporary stroke” or a “mini seizure.”

NBC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman seconded the theories of the Cedars-Sinai doctor while also criticizing the actions of the paramedics on the scene, who permitted Branson to go home on Sunday night because her vital signs were normal.

“She could have recovered and had perfectly normal neurologic function, normal vital signs, and said, ‘Fine, I’ll go home on my own,’” said Snyderman. “Not the right thing to do. You immediately go to the emergency room because this could be a harbinger of more things to come.”

KCBS’s sister station KCAL informed Los Angeles viewers last night that reporter Serene Branson, who made a strange, stumbling live appearance during KCBS’s coverage of the Grammys Sunday, had visited a doctor and underwent medical tests (video above).

On Monday morning, KCBS contradicted an initial news report that Branson had been hospitalized following her shaky stand-up, saying that the reporter was treated by paramedics at the scene but spent the night at home.

“Serene thanks everyone for their concern and good wishes and hopes to be back on the air very soon,” said anchor Rick Garcia during KCAL’s 8 p.m. newscast on Monday.